FACE MENU
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If one or more faces are selected, RMB in the workspace will bring up the Face Operations Menu. This will allow you to perform functions unique to Face manipulations.
When selecting commands, different sub-menus can be invoked depending on which mouse button is used. Generally, the basic option is chosen by LMB, while the more advanced options are chosen by MMB or RMB, and possibly with additional modifier keys. The information Line will show the available options, and will also guide you through dialogs to select reference points, axis, etc., or input numerical coordinates.
Face | Move
Moves the selected face(s) along a specified axis or plane.
- LMB brings up the main submenu:
- Normal - move each of the selected faces along their respective normals.
- Free - move the selection freely in the direction of mouse movement. This can be very useful when in Orthographic mode, since it allows you to use the mouse to move faces in two cardinal directions while “locking” out movement in the third.
- X, Y, or Z – constrains movement of the selection along the standard X, Y or Z axes.
- Last axis – move the selection along the last used axis.
- Default axis – move the selection along the default axis.
- Planar – Opens a further submenu to choose a plane to constrain movement.
- Region – move the selection along the normal of the edge loop of the selected region.
- MMB – move the selection along its normal.
- RMB – choose an axis to move the selection along.
Face | Rotate
Rotates the face(s) around a chosen axis or reference point. Connected faces (Regions) will rotate about their collective center of mass. Non connected faces will rotate about their individual centers of mass.
- LMB brings up the main rotation submenu. Each option offers further choice of rotating about axes or reference points.
- Normal - rotate each of the selected faces along their respective normals.
- Free - rotate the selection freely in the direction of mouse movement.
- X, Y, or Z – constrains rotation of the selection along the standard X, Y or Z axes.
- Last axis – rotate the selection along the last used axis.
- Default axis – rotate the selection along the default axis.
- Rotate to Target – choose from a range of rotation options shown on the Information Line to set axis and/or plane and/or reference points.
- Region – rotate the selection around the normal of the edge loop of the selected region.
- MMB – rotate the selection around an axis and reference point.
- RMB – choose an axis to rotate the selection around.
Face | Scale Uniform
Scales the selected faces uniformly in all directions at once from the midpoint of the selection, or from a selected point.
Face | Scale Axis
Scales the selected faces in the X, Y or Z axis, or along a chosen axis and point.
Face | Scale Radial
Scales the selected faces along two axis, while maintaining one axis stable.
- Radial X (YZ) - Scales the Face radially from the x axis; i.e. The distances in y and z are effected while x remains constant.
- Radial Y (XZ) - Scales the Face radially from the y axis so that the y dimension remains constant.
- Radial Z (XY) Scales the Face radially from the z axis; so that the z dimension remains constant.
Face | Absolute Commands
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Face | Shift
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Face | Extrude
Normal extrudes the selected face(s) along their normal(s). By extruding in the negative normal direction you can create indentations into the body of the object, such as a mouth or nostrils.
Free will extrude the selected face(s) in the direction of mouse movement.
X, Y or Z – constrains the extrusion along the x, y or z axis.
Face | Extract
Extracts a region, or group of faces, from the parent object to create a completely new object. Having selected the region to extract, the choices shown on the Information Line are mainly about the direction to move the new object(s). If not moved, then the new object will overlay/obscure the original region.
Note: The faces do not have to be contiguous. To create a new object that abuts the original object do an Extract and immediately LMB without moving the mouse to lock it in place. You probably will not be able to successfully select the new object due to the underlying original and may have to use the Hide function in the Object menu to hide the parent object so that you can work with the new object. If you have created a new object from non-abutting faces and want to work with them as separate objects, then use the Separate command to break them into their component parts.
Face | Shell Extrude
Normal extrudes the selected face(s) along their normal(s) as a unit. By extruding in the negative normal direction you can create indentations into the body of the object, such as a mouth or nostrils. By using Extrude Region on a group of faces rather than simply using Extrude, you keep the faces joined together into one coherent surface, which is often preferable to having distinct stems “growing” out of the object.
Free will extrude the selected face(s) in the direction of mouse movement.
X, Y or Z – constrains the extrusion along the x, y or z axis.
Face | Sweep
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Face | Flatten
Flattens non-planar faces, i.e., get all of its vertices onto the same plane.
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Last Axis – flatten to last axis used.
Default Axis – flatten to default axis. See [Tools | Set Default Axis].
Region flattens the edge loop, the boundary between selected and non-selected faces, of the selected faces. Note that the vertices on the edge loop become planar, not the faces contained therein.
X, Y, Z – flattens along the x, y or z axis.
Sometimes faces can become non-planar as you work with your model, especially if you Move vertices. This can cause problems later. Smoothing the model will also create planar faces, but if you do not want to smooth your model, you can Flatten offending faces. It is also good for setting up geometry for further manipulation, so that extrusions go in the direction you want them to go, for example.
Face | Inset
This creates a new face, of the same shape, inside the selected face. It works on one or more faces at a time, creating a new Face for each of the selected faces. This could be used, for example, to create a picture inside a picture frame. The inner Face could then be extruded in the negative direction to cause the frame to stand out. You can also Inset and make the new Face larger than the original face. See the Dog House Tutorial for an example of this in action.
Face | Intrude
You can make some very cool models very quickly with the intrude function. It is especially handy for making lattice work type of objects, such as the Eiffel Tower or a bird cage. It works by creating an inverted copy of the entire object, then doing a Bridge on all pairs of selected faces. The thickness of the walls is controlled by how far you move the mouse during the operation. The Dog House tutorial demonstrates the Intrude function quite nicely.
Face | Bevel
Bevels all the edges of the selected Face or faces simultaneously, thus creating a smaller selected Face and small surrounding faces.
Face | Bridge
Causes two co-planer or nearly co-planar faces to snap together, thus fusing new geometry between them. Only two faces can be selected at a time for Bridge. The faces must have the exact same number of edges and vertices but can be shaped differently. This can be used to attach one object to another, one part of the same object to another part of the same object, or to create holes in an object if the selected faces are on opposite sides of the object.
Face | Plane Cut
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Face | Bump
Moves selected faces out along their normals while at the same time creating new faces that meld into the existing geometry via newly beveled faces that are created. This is great for building up muscle tone on a model.
Face | Lift
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The Lift Command is only available if Advanced Menus are activated. Therefore, Lift will be discussed in the Advanced Menus section.
Face | Put On
The Put On command allows you to drop one object onto another, much like dropping a box to the ground. Select the Face you want to put onto another object then select Put On from the Face Menu. The Icon Bar will change to show you that you can select a vertex, edge or Face to put the object on. Select the vertex, edge, or Face you want and then RMB to execute. The first object will jump into place right on the vertex, edge, or Face you selected on the second object. This can be very useful when you go to weld parts together with the Bridge command.
Face | Mirror
Mirrors an object around one or more selected faces. By choosing multiple faces to perform Mirror multiple mirrors are performed simultaneously in the direction each Face points. Thus care must be exercised on complex models least self colliding geometry be created. The Mirror command is most effective for doing symmetrical modeling, wherein only half of a model is built, then a mid model Face is selected and Mirror used to create the other half of the model. If you maintain a clean central edge loop while modeling you can model, Mirror, continue to model, select the middle edge loop and do a Loop Cut, Delete the half of the model that needs to be updated, and then Mirror again.
Face | Dissolve (Bksp)
Deletes inner faces in a region of faces. You can also slice an object into several parts with the Dissolve command by selecting the faces that would separate the parts and doing a Dissolve. The parts will still be grouped as one object until you use the Separate command (in Object selection mode) to separate them.
Face | Collapse
Deletes the selected faces, replacing each Face with a vertex. The selection mode will be changed to Vertex, and the newly created vertices will be selected, allowing you to apply further commands.
Face | Smooth (S)
Connects all the edges of a Face and tightens up the vertices so as to form a smoother shape from the original face. You can make round eyes from square faces with Smooth.
Face | Tesselate
- Triangulate - Will convert all the polygons in the selected faces to triangles. Some programs, such as game engines, expect models to be triangulated before import.
- Quadrangulate - Will fix n-gon faces by converting them to quads whenever possible or to triangles if necessary. An n-gon is a polygon with more than four edges. These are generally considered bad things to have in your model. This is often useful following a [Face | Smooth] since that type of smooth operation can result in adjoining n-gon faces.
- Untriangulate –
Convert triangle sets to quads.
Face | Hide
Hide / Unhide the selected faces.
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Face | Hole
Hole will set the selected faces to the Hole material color.
Hide and Hole have similar effects, but Hide is non-destructive.
Face | Material
New Will prompt you for a Material Name in a pop-up dialog. Type in a new name of your choice and click OK. This will bring up the Material Editor as pictured here. Figure 52: The Wings3D Material Editor.
Materials are assigned to faces, and therefore initially defined with the Material Editor accessed under the Face Menu. They can later be edited via the Material Editor accessed under the Edit Menu.
Here you can custom design a material to be applied to the selected Face by setting the properties Diffuse, Ambient, Specular, Emission, Shininess, and Opacity. The color ball on the left will show a preview of your material design and starts out as a neutral gray. To change any of the first four settings simply click on the box to bring up a color mixer. In the color mixer you can type in the RGB values in the fields on the left or use the slider bars to interactively mix the color. Once satisfied, click on OK. The color ball on the left will immediately change to reflect your settings. Click OK again when you have finished adjusting all the settings to your liking. The new material will be added to the list of materials along with Default and Hole, with the name that you gave it. This new material can then be applied to any Face selection you choose with the [Face | Set Material] command. The materials are saved with the model. In order to see it properly you will need to look at your model as Smooth Shaded, which you can do by pressing the Tab key. Note that a [File | New] will purge the materials list.
Default will set the selected faces to the Default material color.
Face | Vertex Color
Apply vertex colors to the selected faces.
Face | Set Constraint
Create scaling, moving and rotational constraints.
Centers – Calculate the distance between the center points of two selections of faces and save the result as a distance constraint in Preferences.
Percentage – Calculate the difference in scale between the area of two face selections and save the result as a scale constraint in Preferences
Angle – Calculate the angle between any two faces and save the result as a rotation constraint in Preferences
Subtract Angle – Calculate the differnce between two angles and save the result as a rotation constraint in Preferences
FaceToAxis – Measure the angle between a single face and a standard axis or defined vector. Save the result as a rotation constraint in Preferences
Face | UV Mapping
Generate UV Mapping or textures.
Quick Tip: Put On and Bridge
To perform a bridge-like function at the same time, select both faces prior to Put On and Store | Selection. Use Put On, then Recall | Selection, Bridge, Cleanup, etc. This is quite quick, especially if on hot keys. (puzzledpaul).
Quick Tip: Fix that mirror plane
If you use the Loop Cut, model, and Mirror method described above you will sometimes find that the object does not Mirror back together properly. This is often caused by the mirror Face getting out of kilter i.e. nonplanar, while modeling. Mirroring in such cases will cause a real mess. To fix it up, select the mirror Face and do a Flatten on the appropriate axis to make it planar again. Then do the Mirror to make a whole object from the half. Finally, select [Tools | Center All] to get the whole thing re-centered in the workspace.
Quick Tip: Smooth To Check For Anomalies
To check for self colliding ‘internal’ geometry smooth once and eyeball in wireframe mode, as it won’t usually be obvious as an unsmoothed wireframe. (puzzledpaul).